Dragon Electric Vehicles Astra

This vehicle is going to be driven by 70 volunteers. In my view it's a bad choice as it's too complicated - just read the instructions for driving and charging it. Also very scary: e.g. "EXPLOSIVE VAPOURISATION" risk!

To expect all 70 volunteers to plan their journeys right; drive it right (so they don't run out of charge and don't overheat the motor); and charge it right (early and often) seems to be impossibly ambitious.

More likely, most volunteers will drive it like a regular car, i.e. change gears early and use 4th and 5th gears (why wouldn't they - why should they RTFM?); forget to plug it in to charge all of the time; get confused by the fact they have to fill an electric car with petrol (gasoline - for the heater).

I predict the volunteers will inadvertently trash the car; and the car will trash the reputation of electric cars amongst 70 people and everyone they know. All because of a poor choice of conversion.

Well it seems to have survived the 18 month trial and another 3 years private ownership. I have now bought the beast and am off to collect it in the morning. Will be interesting to see what sort of state the cells are in.

Well it seems to have survived the 18 month trial and another 3 years private ownership. I have now bought the beast and am off to collect it in the morning. Will be interesting to see what sort of state the cells are in.

Rory

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Welcome and congrats! Will be interesting to see what shape it's in for sure.

Welcome and congrats! Will be interesting to see what shape it's in for sure.

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Well not too bad. The noticeable thing to me is the final drive is shot. Really noisy and rough the faster you go. I uncovered the cells to find that 2 of the cells were dead and had been removed from the circuit. The previous owner had never looked so in effect the pack is 15 KWh not 30. I managed to buy 4 cells which are old stock as they dont make that size anymore. Eventually I decided to refit the best 24 cells in the rear tray and leave the front clear so I can change the gearbox. The remaining cells I may fit in another conversion I have with poor SLA batteries. The car seems to have no charge monitor so I have ordered one so that I can monitor the power usage. One aspect that surprised me is that the Series Motor has a regen controller although I am not sure that it actually works on regen.

With regard to the cells which are 200 Ah Lifepo from Hi-Power a chinese maker. The Internal Resistance is very variable and the front pack much worse than the rear which is effectively inside the passenger compartment. From which I would assume that exposure to low temperature is damaging. Two of the front cells had been disconnected and swelled very badly. I have not carried out any capacity measurement on the cells.